Hamilton man says police used excessive force during his arrest

Dennis Moon stands in front of a video monitor in the office of AXA/WCA Towing in Hamilton 4/15/13. He was pepper-sprayed and arrested in the office during what he said was unnecessary and excessive force used by policeAlex Zdan/The Times

HAMILTON— A township man says police used excessive force last week when they pepper-sprayed and arrested him for telling them to leave his daughter and wife’s towing business.

Dennis Moon was ultimately charged with obstructing the administration of law and resisting arrest by Hamilton police. But he said he did nothing against the officers and was pepper-sprayed while he had his hands in the air and was backing away. And, he has witnesses and building surveillance video that he said back up his story.

“All I did was disagree with him,” Moon said yesterday. “That’s it.”

Moon, 46, pleaded not guilty to both charges in municipal court yesterday morning, and has retained an attorney to help him file an Internal Affairs complaint against the two officers who arrested him.

Police have said Moon shouted at them and pointed, causing them to feel pepper-spray was necessary.

Moon’s wife, Donna, and daughter Tammy own AXA/WCA Towing, an indoor tow yard housed inside a former industrial building on East State Street Extension. On Thursday afternoon, a woman whose car was towed and her friend began angrily disagreeing with a worker behind the counter about the payment of tow fees. The women ended up calling the police.

Eileen Pennell, who was working behind the desk that day, normally welcomes township police officers.

“You know what, that makes my job easier,” she said. “The cop comes in, tells them they have to pay.”

The business had towed the car from a private lot, where it has a contract to remove vehicles. When Officer Jose Anaya, who signed the criminal complaint, arrived with another officer, Pennell let him through the secured office door, where he spoke with her and Moon.

When the officer questioned the charges for the woman’s car, Moon asked him to leave. The officer replied that he was there investigating and wouldn’t go. When Moon told him to leave, the officer pepper-sprayed and arrested him, Moon and Pennell said.

Police have a different version of the story. They said they were called out at 2:25 p.m. on a dispute, and arrived to find Moon yelling at them.

“He raised his hands, pointed and the officers told him if he continued he would be placed under arrest,” said Capt. Remo DiPaolo, a department spokesman.
Moon was pepper-sprayed, and attempted to pull away while he was being placed under arrest, DiPaolo said.

In the video, however, Moon’s right hand can be seen going up in surrender as he backs away from the officer, at that point off-camera.

Moon is large man but can be seen calmly ambling across the room to speak to the officer. “I didn’t rush over here, I walked over there,” Moon said.

He received no warning before being sprayed and arrested, he said. On the video, the officer cannot be seen using the pepper spray but police do not deny that they used it.
Moon can be seen backing away from the officer, then his hands go up quickly to cover his eyes as the burning starts from the pepper spray.

DiPaolo declined comment last week on any potential internal investigation.

“If the officer feels threatened, he’s allowed to use the pepper spray,” DiPaolo said.
Pennell said she could feel an “itchy, scratchy, burny” feeling inside the roughly 10-by-15-foot office area, almost certainly from residual pepper spray in the air.

Moon was walked outside to a patrol car, where the camera shows the officer speaking to him. Moon says Anaya was taunting him, asking if he was a “tough guy now.”

“They never read my Miranda rights; they never told me why I was being arrested or nothing,” Moon said.

While Anaya’s partner was professional, Moon claims Anaya kept talking to him even as they pulled into township police headquarters.

“He said, ‘You never tell Hamilton PD to get out,’” Moon said of Anaya.

Moon and his wife Donna intend to get the charges dropped with the help of the video, then expose what they say is the unfair treatment Dennis Moon received.

“Hamilton police are way too aggressive, my man,” Dennis Moon said.

Moon was arrested in 2005 in Trenton after allegedly pointing a gun at a man whose car was towed, but was acquitted of all charges by a jury in 2007.